Film has been a part of my life since I was born. When we lived in Italy all we had was Italian TV so my parents would go on base and we would gather as many movies as we could to help pass the time. By the time we moved back to the states our library was full of movies that we would watch over and over again. It has always amazed me how much of an escape films can become and no matter how horrible of a day I am having movies always cheer me up. When I was really little I would take my Grandmothers video camera and set up all my action figures like actors and put them into intense situations, they were really basic short films but it was so fun to record my childhood adventures. While in Boy Scouts I earned the Photography Merit Badge, but if they had one for film I would have worked to earn that as well. I finished my scouting adventure with earning the highest rank of Eagle Scout. When I was in high school my dad always told me to do what I love and from that point on I knew I had to go into film. In high school I worked in many different computer classes learning the basics of editing and making fake commercials and videos. I was also a member of a performance group for National History Day where I was involved in writing scripts, doing research, designing sets, and acting in those performances. My senior year we took 1st Place at the Texas State History Competition and placed 7th at the National History Day Competition. After high school I left home to try and go to a major tech school for film and it never worked out. When I moved back to Texas is when I heard about the Film Connection and my luck with getting into media had finally started to work out.

While in the Film Connection program I have had some great help from my mentor to get me through all of the assignments, and being able to work in a real studio has been amazing. Each lesson was easy to understand and I was also given many different books so if I couldn’t figure out the answer in my workbook I had a variety of resources to help me study. One of my favorite books that I was given was a Brief History Of Film. I was fascinated by how far the world of filming has progressed over the years and it really has opened my eyes to all of the different genres I had been missing out on for so very long. I began to learn the inner workings of an office and also started to get hands on experience with many different kinds of editing software. I was also able to work on sets for commercials, started to learn all of the different ways to light a room, and use a green screen. It is amazing to take an actor that is in a generic green room and put them somewhere else completely different like a kitchen or on a mountain. It’s a rush to trick the eyes and bring imagination to viewers. At my mentors’ studio I was treated more like a new employee and less of like a student so everything I was able to work on I felt like I was a part of. The program has really helped to mold how I view where my career is going and it has also helped me gain the confidence I need to take chances on my own.

I am at the end of the program and the studio I have been working with has offered me a job so when I finish my last week, and graduate the Film Connection, I will become an employee of the studio. At the studio I will be working on commercials a part of a dub team I will be shipping them out to all over the United States. I will also be assisting on Video shoots for Commercials and Training videos, in which all of these things will really help build up my skills so with every day I will be even more qualified for all types of jobs. That’s why I love working for a studio that does a little bit of everything. I am very excited to finally get out of retail and work around the things I really love to do. Being in the Film Connection program has also helped me gain the confidence to work on my own side projects as I am working on a YouTube series and a short film that will hopefully will be brought to the public soon. Being in the Film Connection program was a huge game changer for my life and I am so happy that I could be a part of it and gain the real world experience I need to be successful in my new career path.

— Trent Jones, Austin, Texas